Archives.

July, 2013

Gunnelpumpers is thrilled to be releasing our fourth CD, the 19-track “Montana Fix”, this coming Wednesday. The official event will happen at Martyrs‘ at 3855 N. Lincoln Avenue of our fair city, Chicago. The cover is only $7 and anyone age 17+ may attend!

If you can’t be there, consider showing your support by purchasing the CD just about anywhere online (our favorite is Bandcamp), friend us on Facebook, or support your local live music scene and musical innovators.

Also performing Wednesday will be The Ham Council, for whom this is also a release party for their new CD, “you need to work on your character flaws”, as well as the touring Sophistafunk from Syracuse, NY. Sophistafunk leader Adam Gold is owner of the renowned Funk ‘n Waffles in Syracuse, and both the restaurant and the band were recently featured on FoodTV’s DDD. Sophistafunk is a trio consisting of synth bass/keys, drums, and rapper.

8:00 Gunnelpumpers
9:00 The Ham Council
10:00 Sophistafunk

Gunnelpumpers is thrilled to have original member, percussionist Doug Brush, join us Wednesday. He is visiting all the way from New Zealand for his parents 50th wedding anniversary and the timing for us could not have worked out better. Also playing this night will be Bob Garrett on drum kit, Randy Farr on percussion, Michael Hovnanian on double bass, John Meyer on electric guitar, and I’ll be playing whatever I happen to bring along. Two of those who also recorded on Montana Fix will be unable to join us Wednesday, but the significant contributions of Matthew Golombisky and Quinlan Kirchner are duly noted and appreciated!

Below are highlights from several reviews of Montana Fix that have been written. Two of them are in German, one in Russian, and the others are good olde English.:

“A lot of avant-garde bands will toss a bunch of disparate stuff together in hopes that they come up with exotic combinations that work. The Gunnelpumpers do that, too, but the difference with these guys is that just about everything they try actually does work. Gunnelpumpers have truly created a sound of their own that’s hard to categorize. They rarely stay on the main path, but that’s what makes Montana Fix such a thrilling listen. The Gunnelpumpers manage to make refreshingly original music when we’ve thought everything has already been done before.”
– S. Victor Aaron, Something Else! Reviews (Jul 19, 2013)

“Gunnelpumpers perform some of the most extreme forms of darkly Gothic, chaotic, confrontational, and dissonant music this side of John Zorn, John Cage, King Crimson, Univers Zero, Henry Cow, Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, Etron Fu Leloublan, and Samla Mammas Manna. If you’re looking for something a bit more challenging than the standard fare prog/rock you’ve been listing to – or happen to be an aficionado of R.I.O. then Gunnelpumpers and their album “Montana Fix” is well worth a listen. Especially fans of Crimson’s improvisational pieces.”
– Joseph Shingler, ProgNaut (Jul 18, 2013)

“Montana Fix” may make listeners aware of how to arrange exciting music for three basses, guitar and percussion.
– Siggy Zielinski, Babyblau Prog-Reviews (Jul 09, 2013)

“[Montana Fix] is a nineteen track album that takes some time and patience to appreciate. But if you are in the mood for something completely different, this is a great alternative album to put on the CD player. ”
– Mark Johnson, Sea of Tranquility (Jul 13, 2013)

“I regret that I had never heard Gunnelpumpers. I’m glad that it happened. And what you want.”
– Leonid Auskern, Jazz Quad Magazine (Jul 10, 2013)

“Double bassist Matthew Golombisky is credited on many songs with likeable noise (whatever that is), but it’s a term that could just as easily apply to the band’s experimental-yet-accessible sound.”
– Ron Schepper, textura.org (Jun 28, 2013)
“The highlight [of Montana Fix] is a ten-minute, hand-made piece of dark ambient, all real, earthy and rhythmic. A crazy journey, but very digestible by the subdivision into shorter pieces almost exclusively.”
– Michael We, NONPOP (Jun 08, 2013)

“[Montana Fix], the fourth full-length album, features close to 80 minutes (!) worth of music…and each and every second is interesting and provocative. There’s a lot to take in here…which means you can spin this one for weeks…months…years…and still find something new that you might have previously missed.”
– LMNOP aka dONW7, babysue (Jun 03, 2013)

“instrumental music of the highest order. Open-your-head music. An amazing, expansive mix of influences – classical, jazz, world music. [Montana Fix] is intense, moody, introspective, groovy, transcendent, atmospheric, mind-expanding. A great collection of grooves that roam across the sonic horizon. The collective vibe of this group is stunning. Inspired!”
– James Moeller, whitewolfsonicprincess (May 23, 2013)